George Porter Sat in with Dead and Company Saturday

George Porter Jr. sits in at the Smoothie King Center with John Mayer and Dead and Company, by Erika Goldring

Dead and Company were scheduled to play The Smoothie King Center last December, but the band postponed the show because guitarist John Mayer--the Jerry Garcia sub in this configuration--had to have an emergency appendectomy. Saturday night, they made up the show and revisited The Grateful Dead catalogue for hours, but there was no mention of Mayer's illness.

The Meters' George Porter Jr. played with the Dead and Company drummer Bill Kreutzmann in 7 Walkers, and when guitarist Bob Weir played the Saenger last year, Porter joined him as well. With that history, it wasn't a big surprise that he was invited to the stage to set in near the end of the first set to play three songs--"Smokestack Lightning," "Bertha," and "Sugaree," which he also performed with Weir.

Photographer Erika Goldring was there and shot the show. Click on pictures to see them in a viewer window.